You know what the reading zone is - it is the magical place where you are so entranced by what you are reading that distractions are swatted like flies, connections and reactions pop up effortlessly, and engagement is visible by the continuous flipping of pages and an infectious desire to talk about what you have read.
The reading zone, a phrase coined by students of Nancie Atwell in reading workshop, is discussed in her book titled the same. I recently reread Nancie’s book and marveled at the dichotomy we face in English classrooms. What she talks about – how to help kids become skilled, passionate, habitual, critical readers – is my philosophy on teaching language arts. Her blend of reader and writer workshop, poetry study, mini-lessons, and booktalk discussions is exactly how I would want my ideal classroom to be structured. On the other hand, she talks about the teaching of comprehension strategies, which became big in the 90s and continue to infiltrate the field, as “interfering with the reading zone” (54).
As a new, impressionable teacher I see the benefit of teaching kids how to comprehend, with seven clear cut strategies of proficient readers. The truth is, though, they will only comprehend what makes sense to them. To widen what makes sense to them, we need to give plenty of time for reading books of their choosing. Atwell aptly states, “One of the many virtues of frequent, voluminous reading is how it fills up the file drawers of long-term memory, increases our vicarious experience, and improves our comprehension of the world and the word” (60). The more they read, the more they will know, the more they can understand.
So Nancie’s call to English teachers is this: What kinds of readers do you want to leave your room? What kinds of writers do you want to leave your room? When considering curriculum and planning, how can you establish a community of readers and writers that will leave your room more passionate, habitual, critical and literary?
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